Fact: The UK is home to an amazing variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables.

But let’s be honest, if you’re already trying to plan meals and juggle a hectic schedule, making sense of seasonal eating isn’t always realistic. Sometimes, I fancy tomatoes in my salad, and I have a feeling avocados won’t be growing on British shores any time soon.

When I do have time on my hands, though, I try to keep things simple. Like swapping courgettes for cauliflowers, or roasted parsnips for peppers, because you know when it’s in season it will taste that much better.

So to make seasonal eating a little easier for all of us, here’s how to choose, store and cook this season’s best British vegetables.

Cabbage

How to choose it: Look for tight, compact heads that are heavy for their size.

How to store it: Uncut cabbages can keep in the fridge for up to three weeks.

How to cook it: Roasting red cabbage in large wedges makes it tender, and really brings out the natural flavour and sweetness. Plus it won’t fill your house with any boiled cabbage smell!

Make this tonight: Roasted Red Cabbage Wedges & Nut Pesto Rice

Cauliflower

How to choose it: Look for a uniform creamy white color, densely packed florets that are free of blemishes, browning or wet spots. It should feel heavy for its size.

How to store it: Keep cauliflower loose in the crisper drawer, and use it within a week.

How to cook it: Like cabbage, roasting cauliflower really concentrates the flavour of this versatile vegetable. All those craggy edges get charred too, adding extra crispy texture.

Make this tonight: Roasted Cauliflower Korma & Fragrant Rice

New Potatoes

How to choose it: Look for smooth, undamaged, and unblemished skins. Avoid potatoes that have soft spots, bruising, or seem damp or wet.

How to store it: Because of their thin skins and high moisture content, new potatoes don’t keep as long as mature potatoes. Keep them in a paper bag at room temperature, and use them within a few days.

How to cook it: You can boil them, or boil then crush them, or even boil, lightly crush and roast them! Being so young, they’re naturally sweet. All they need is a sprinkle of flaky sea salt, butter and fresh herbs.

Make this tonight: Roasted Salmon, Crushed Potatoes, Lemon-Caper Sauce

Peppers

How to choose it: Peppers should be firm and glossy, with taut and unwrinkled skin.

How to store it: Place them in a fabric mesh bag to keep them from getting moist. Then put the pepper in the vegetable drawer in your fridge.

How to cook it: Everyone loves a roast pepper, but personally I love frying them first and then stewing them in a paella or curry until they melt in your mouth.

Make this tonight: Prawn, Red Pepper & Saffron Orzo

Spinach

How to choose it: Choose spinach with leaves that are dark green and crisp. Avoid limp or yellowing leaves when buying, as this means it’s starting to turn.

How to store it: When kept in the fridge, dry unwashed spinach keeps for 3-4 days. Once it’s wet, it tends to deteriorate faster.

How to cook it: Fresh spinach is such an easy vegetable to cook, as it can melt into just about anything. Because it only takes seconds to cook, I like to add it right at the end of cooking so it stays vibrant and green.

Make this tonight: Saffron & Spinach Chicken Pilaf

Pak Choi

How to choose it: Pak choi should have perky leaves and firm stalks. The smaller they are the more tender they’ll be.

How to store it: In a mesh cloth bag for up to three days.

How to cook it: With pak choi, don’t be afraid of garlic, as the two work brilliantly together. I love stir-frying it, because the leaves become tender while the stalks stay crisp.

Make this tonight: Korean-style Fried Chicken With Garlicky Pak Choi

I hope this guide inspires you to enjoy all the delicious local vegetables near you. Let us know in the comments if you try any of these recipes yourself this season.

And remember, if you want the avocado – have the avocado.

Want to eat seasonally, but don’t have time?

At Gousto we work hard to find out which vegetables are at their best each season, so they’re packed with flavour, vitamins and nutrients – and so we can lower our carbon footprint where possible. That’s why certain ingredients in our recipes will change depending on the season (for example right now we’re swapping spring greens for kale).

We also want to give people a wide variety of fresh and delicious recipes to choose from so while not all of our ingredients are seasonal we can guarantee there are seasonal ingredients on the menu every week.

Choose from 50 delicious recipes on our menu, and we’ll deliver pre-measured ingredients to your door with easy-to-follow recipe cards, any day of the week. See what’s on this week’s menu now!